


The Bigger Picture

by Goldy



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-28
Updated: 2014-07-28
Packaged: 2018-02-08 19:01:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1952532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goldy/pseuds/Goldy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i> It’s the image he’s remembering—Rose, eleven-years-old, crying over a dead pigeon the cat dragged into the Tyler’s living room—that makes this seem so wrong.</i> S4 missing scene.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Bigger Picture

“Rose.”

Rose looks up, fingers flicking off the safety on the gun slung across her chest. She adjusts the shoulder strap and then hoists it over one arm.

“Yeah?”

He stares at her dumbly, hand ticking nervously against his thigh. It’s the image he’s remembering—Rose, eleven-years-old, crying over a dead pigeon the cat dragged into the Tyler’s living room—that makes this seem so wrong. This is _Rose_ , defender of truth, justice, democracy and all that shit. This, her with a gun, ready to test the newest and most powerful model Torchwood has to offer… that’s not right.

He remembers Rose, at seven, dancing around in a pink tutu until she slipped in a puddle and ran home covered in mud. Rose, at fourteen, licking ice cream off the tip of her nose, her other hand entwined with his. Rose, aged sixteen, camped out next to the stage, waiting for Jimmy Stone to catch her eye.

It’s like flipping through a scrapbook, the edges torn and faded with time. Not that he has any early pictures of Rose. Not in this universe.

“Mickey, what is it?”

He licks his lips and only says, “You better let me have a go.”

She grins at him. “Think you can handle it?”

“Better than you, at any rate,” he shoots back.

Rose smirks and turns to face the wall. She pulls the trigger. Mickey’s hands instinctively come up to shelter his ears, but Rose barely flinches. She rocks back a few steps from the force of the blast. The wall is momentarily engulfed in a ball of fire and then collapses in a messy heap, filling the room with thick smoke. The flames lick at the bricks before sputtering out.

“Yeah,” Rose says impassively. “That’ll do.”

“It’s not bad,” he agrees. He eyes the gun with new interest. “That’ll stop anything." Yeah, he could stand to have his on go at it.

Her lips tug at the corners of her mouth. It might be a smile. “That’s the plan.”

Mickey’s ears ring and he shakes his head to clear it. Without thinking, words tumble from his mouth, “Why, Rose? Why are you so focused on getting back there? We all thought you were getting over him.”

Rose stiffens, fingers faltering over the gun’s trigger. “That’s not why I’m going. We need him, Mickey.”

“Right,” Mickey says, eyes watering from the leftover smoke. “This has nothing to do with you. It’s all about the fate of the universe.”

“It _is_!” Rose says, her voice rising. For a second, she looks terrified, but then she schools her face back into a neutral frown. “Of course I want to see him again, but that’s not…. Look, we don’t have anything left to lose, alright?”

Mickey remembers the way Rose cried after Bad Wolf Bay, sobs so strong, it sounded like she might break in half. “Dunno, Rose,” he says. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that.”

Rose stares at him, her face pale and worn. Her voice shakes over her words, “I’ve got to try, Mickey. I’ve just… I’ve got to.”

He fights the sudden urge to pull her into his arms and tell her it’ll all work itself out. But Rose doesn’t want that. She’s too focused, too busy thinking about the bigger picture to take time to stop.

Finally, he settles on, “I reckon if anyone could do it, Rose, it’d be you.”

He catches a glint of hope in her eyes, but then she shrugs off the gun and deposits it at his feet.

“Your turn.”

“Yeah,” he says. “Thanks.”


End file.
